I always assumed ...after Summer disappeared (or whatever happened to Summer). There was nothing indicating that they went to the same school, just that Nami and Nika used to live in her area and hung out with her (presumably because of Summer).
For the Zanes to be involved doesn't mean they are the villains - Nika's parents could've been criminal, or the Zane's enemies took out Zane allies. There is literally no details, whe're just finding what is most plausible to each of us personally. It really depends on what plot twists Ocean has in mind, we'll likely all be wrong.
I posted some renders in
this post discussing fluctuating body sizes. Ch1 Mila is different from ch4 which is different from ch2/ch5. Old Ch1 Mila before the rework was different again, but it was what people first knew. Yes the renders were quite a lot worse than now, and her model had an unrealistic waist, but she's not really cognisable now. Of all the characters that Ocean reworked completely Mila was the one that people were the unhappiest with (others were William, Scarlet, Zoey and Miru in Wiab, and Ayua, far fewer changes in SG compared to WiaB, but WiaB needed it more).
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I'd say that it's be lucky if we get it before Christmas, but who knows? Ocean's devlogs haven't really been detailing progress on a timescale. He had 50% of the renders done in 4 months or so, but the dynamic clothing's probably added to that. He could be going faster now than before. Read the devlogs when they come out to get a sense of progress, but you have to read between the lines because Ocean just won't commit to deadlines, because he typically misses them every time he says a date. Better to just release it when ready.